RX For Nosebleed Prices

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While regulators and some lawmakers take aim at dirty patent tricks, the young Bush White House has mostly looked the other way. Bush campaigned on a promise to help senior citizens pay for prescription drugs through Medicare reform, but he hasn't been eager to press that contentious issue. He will most probably deliver a set of reform guidelines to Congress by summer and then strive to remain above the fray.

But that could prove difficult as the drive to halt patent cheating and encourage generics gains momentum in Washington. As that happens, the issue will become how to control prescription costs without dampening the flow of funds for pharmaceutical research. And if that heroic task should cause anyone heartburn, why, then, a dose of Prilosec--or its generic equivalent, if one ever becomes available--could certainly do the trick.

--Reported by Viveca Novak and Mark Thompson/Washington